How companies can handle personal misconduct of employees to avoid PR storm

In recent times, i-Cable News has been involved in online chatter as one of its high ranking executives was caught on camera with a woman on a ferry during work hours. The individual, reported by local media to be married with a family, allegedly resigned from the company not long after.

Media monitoring platform Meltwater revealed that the incident has seen mixed reactions across social media platforms – with 14% negative sentiments and 13% positive sentiments, with a total of 1.21K mentions over the past week. While local media reported that the i-Cable News is concerned about the incident, the firm declined to comment on the incident or any personal matters. 

While it is unclear if both parties caught on camera were from the i-Cable news organisation, in such instances, seeing a resignation emerge soon after is not uncommon.

In February this year, president of CNN and chairman of WarnerMedia’s news and sports division Jeff Zucker resigned following news surfacing of his relationship with another CNN executive. Not long after, the CNN executive who was later found to be Allison Gollust, also resigned from the company. According to many reports, in that particular incident, the relationship between Zucker and Gollust was not the actual problem, but rather it was the failure to disclose the incident to the organisation.

Today, many employees and spokespersons within a company have the power to come across as the face of the brand. This is more so when the individuals are high ranking, which makes them even more so intertwined with the values of a company. In a conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Desmond Ku from the Bridge Agency said that when such incidents occur, it is best to address the rumours in the market. But in the case of i-Cable News, given the individual in question has already reportedly resigned, there is no further need to issue an apology statement from the firm.

“It is best to keep things as low profile as possible, and the company has the right to refuse to comment on personal matters,” he shared.

David Ko, managing director at RFI Asia, added that the real concern will be if this becomes a systematic issue and many such incidents emerge within the company. That could point to a pattern within the firm, which would then require addressing. However, he added that most HongKongers are discerning enough to realise that this incident was an isolated personal conduct of an executive and is not reflective of corporate culture.

Nonetheless, Ko advised that companies should always hold their senior executives to higher standards given they are in positions of power that can be abused. "However, we understand they are human too. If wrong doing is proven, and swift action is taken, the brand should not suffer long-term damage. Only when a pattern indicates there is institutional corruption, should the brand and company be taken to task,” he added.

Use the help of social listening to address market chatter

Today social listening is important tool to handle any crisis that PR teams might face, explained Katie Lam, general manager of L Concept Communications. "When it comes to scandals, we recommend using social listening measures to justify whether a scandal would cause a significant impact on the brand image,” she added.

“If it reaches a certain level of negative impact, a clarification statement is necessary, and we will first advise the brand to address the issue internally before swiftly addressing the public,” she added.

It comes as no surprise that businesses today are held at a higher level of scrutiny. According to Edelman’s 2022 Trust Barometer, there is now a “greater expectation of business to lead as trust in government continues to spiral” across the globe. But this is not a job business can do on its own. Business must work with all institutions to foster innovation and drive impact.

(Photo courtesy: Shutterstock)

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